Light Up Your Life With Islam

Posts tagged ‘appearance’

The best of people that ever lived on this planet were prophets. They were chosen people by Allah who were sincere, truthful and had exemplary characters. We are supposed to follow the way of the prophets and spread the message of peace and submission to one God that they brought.

The last and final prophet who was sent on this earth for the guidance of mankind was Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He was given the religion and way of life that is perfect, complete and unchangeable till the end of times and so there’s no need of another prophet now. However, we the followers of that Prophet ﷺ are supposed to take his mission forward and spread that message of truth and guidance to all mankind.

Today there are more than 1.6 billion Muslims in the world who all revere and love the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to bits even though they never met or saw him. But everyone has this yearning of knowing what he looked like and of meeting him eventually (inshaAllah).

Fortunately, we find many narrations where the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ describe his appearance. Following are some excerpts from a few of them just to give you a flavour:

Sahih Bukhari, 3549:

…Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) was the handsomest of all the people, and had the best appearance. He was neither very tall nor short.

Al-Bara’ was asked, “Was the face of the Prophet (as bright) as a sword?” He said, “No, but (as bright) as a moon.”

Sahih Bukhari, 3553:

Narrated Abu Juhaifa: … (After the prayer), the people got up and held the hands of the Prophet and passed them on their faces. I also took his hand and kept it on my face and noticed that it was colder than ice, and its smell was nicer than musk.

This was a glimpse of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Notice how people observed everything about him. We do not compare in any way to the Prophet of Allah ﷺ but if we are the carriers of the same message and are taking his mission forward and are Muslims, then people notice us too. They notice us very deeply and then they talk about it. Some people in their ignorance might consider our bad habits to be part of this religion. We Muslims represent Islam. We ought to be careful in how we look, dress and deal with others. We can’t have the “I don’t care” attitude. Because we should care. We want others to know how Islam shapes its followers beautifully in well-balanced individuals. We want them to come closer to this perfect way of life.

Like this:

We grew up hearing, “all that glitters is not gold”. However, we didn’t pay much heed to it. We still think that all that glitters is gold. We persisted in being superficial. It’s just too deep to actually think the real story behind the scenes could be different. Who would put in that much effort?
And thus, the preference for superficiality took root in us and we started judging everything just based on appearance.

“A beautiful girl must be my daughter-in-law, who cares about the character”.

“She always puts these romantic statuses on Facebook, she must be so happy and I’m oh-so-jealous”.

“My friend from school has such a beautiful house and car, I wish I had a life exactly like his”.

Yet, often the reality is very different from what we know. A poor person could be way more peaceful at heart than the one who is financially secure. Not only does this include not judging based on appearance but also not judging based on hearsay.

Friend A: “I saw him in the market with a girl in his car and I think she was his girlfriend”. Friend B: “Really? And I always thought he was a pious man. How fake!”

What just happened in this situation here? Person B believed person A in a trice without even thinking that his friend could be wrong. The girl in the car could very well be the guy’s sister, niece, aunt etc. We believe whatever anyone tells us and love to spread it around, as long as it highlights something negative. If only we had adopted the opposite course and conveyed what good we know of others, how much love would there be in this world today.

Mother-in-law: “My daughter-in-law does so and so…” Neighbour: “Oh my! Does she really? Poor you”.

Who knew what was the other side of the story? We make a judgement after listening to only one side of the story. You can never know the whole unless you know both sides. To be sure, even then you sometimes don’t know the exact reality.

Persist as we do in our unwise attitudes, Allah tells us through various stories, signs and miracles that don’t be quick to judge and don’t say things hastily.

Here’s an interesting story.

Sahih Bukhari, 3436:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “None spoke in cradle but three: …….. (The third was the hero of the following story) A lady from Bani Israel was nursing her child at her breast when a handsome rider passed by her. She said, ‘O Allah ! Make my child like him.’ On that the child left her breast, and facing the rider said, ‘O Allah! Do not make me like him.’ The child then started to suck her breast again. (Abu Huraira further said, “As if I were now looking at the Prophet (ﷺ) sucking his finger (in way of demonstration.”) After a while the people passed by, with a lady slave and she (i.e. the child’s mother) said, ‘O Allah! Do not make my child like this (slave girl)!, On that the child left her breast and said, ‘O Allah! Make me like her.’ When she asked why, the child replied, ‘The rider is one of the tyrants while this slave girl is falsely accused of theft and illegal sexual intercourse.”

This doesn’t mean that no matter what one does, you start wondering what would be the real story behind this. No! Rather don’t be hasty in wishing things that might not be as they seem and avoid being judgemental. Deal with people on the apparent but don’t judge based on their appearance and hearsay.

Make your own life and the life of others easy! :)

P.S. To read about the other child who spoke in his cradle, click here.

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A Wise Person

‘A wise person is one who keeps a watch over his bodily desires and passions, and checks himself from that which is harmful and strives for that which will benefit him after death; and a foolish person is one who subordinates himself to his cravings and desires and expects from Allah the fulfilment of his futile desires.
-Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 66